DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62360#0114
MANTUA FRESCOES
63
The Adoration of the Magi for stately beauty, though
somewhat marred by the heavy cherubs around her.
(Plate 16.) Beside her the S. Zeno Madonna, seated
on her gorgeous throne amid all the insignia of
hieratic pomp, is insignificant. The child is treated
with extreme naturalness. Observe what loving care
Mantegna has bestowed on the delicate plants and
grasses of the foreground, and the beautiful growth of
fig which sprouts from the rock above the cave.
Again we find a reminiscence of Jacopo Bellini. In
the Paris Sketch book is a study of the same scene,
where the cavalcade winds round the rocky hills in
a manner precisely similar.
The right wing, representing The Circumcision,
shows Mantegna once more preoccupied with the
beauty of architecture. (Plate 17.) Full of interest as
are the figures, the eye at first hardly observes them,
but is caught up by the soaring line of the pillar to the
beautiful curves of the arches above, and remains there
fascinated by the life and spring of the lines. But
after the first sweeping sensation, as the eye descends
to the group at the foot of this tree-like column,
the attention is rivetted on the tender charm of the
scene. Those who, like Selvatico, can find in
Mantegna little but stern severity, can never have
studied him in this mood, and yet it is a mood
constantly recurring, almost invariable in his repre-
sentation of children. Plow sympathetically he has
felt the terror of the child, the sorrow of the Virgin,
the kindly benevolence of the old priest. Christ has
thrown himself round in beseeching appeal to his
mother, while the little S. John puts a finger in his
63
The Adoration of the Magi for stately beauty, though
somewhat marred by the heavy cherubs around her.
(Plate 16.) Beside her the S. Zeno Madonna, seated
on her gorgeous throne amid all the insignia of
hieratic pomp, is insignificant. The child is treated
with extreme naturalness. Observe what loving care
Mantegna has bestowed on the delicate plants and
grasses of the foreground, and the beautiful growth of
fig which sprouts from the rock above the cave.
Again we find a reminiscence of Jacopo Bellini. In
the Paris Sketch book is a study of the same scene,
where the cavalcade winds round the rocky hills in
a manner precisely similar.
The right wing, representing The Circumcision,
shows Mantegna once more preoccupied with the
beauty of architecture. (Plate 17.) Full of interest as
are the figures, the eye at first hardly observes them,
but is caught up by the soaring line of the pillar to the
beautiful curves of the arches above, and remains there
fascinated by the life and spring of the lines. But
after the first sweeping sensation, as the eye descends
to the group at the foot of this tree-like column,
the attention is rivetted on the tender charm of the
scene. Those who, like Selvatico, can find in
Mantegna little but stern severity, can never have
studied him in this mood, and yet it is a mood
constantly recurring, almost invariable in his repre-
sentation of children. Plow sympathetically he has
felt the terror of the child, the sorrow of the Virgin,
the kindly benevolence of the old priest. Christ has
thrown himself round in beseeching appeal to his
mother, while the little S. John puts a finger in his